Meet the Staff

The hand that guides us and the heart that never quits

Alexandra Griffin, Editor-in-Chief

By Charlotte Hood, Asst. Section Editor

Hard-working. Dedicated. Driven. Strong. Intelligent. Whether it be a famous war general or an NBA basketball coach, there are certain traits that any given person would associate with a leader, and senior Alexandra Griffin is no exception. With her multiple, successful leadership position in programs and clubs throughout the school, such as the treasurer of the Science National Honor Society, president of the Quill and Scroll Honor Society, and editor-in-chief of the Tornado Times newspaper, is there any doubt of her abilities?

To be in such an involved and time-limited activity like newspaper (much less the editor-in-chief), one has to truly have a passion for it to be able to commit to the responsibility that the position demands.

“I think It’s really important for students to be able to not only express themselves, but to have other people not necessarily accept their viewpoints, (and) to realize that other people have other viewpoints,” Griffin said. “It’s really important to have a better understanding of the truth.”

Despite her jam-packed schedule, which includes four AP classes and the occasional teaching of a horse-riding class, Griffin still manages to make time for her hobbies and non-school related passions.

“I ride horses all the time,” Griffin said. “I’m on a competitive team, the Acts 2 Acres Show Team.”

Although her attendance at every club meeting is consistant, her residence in a particular house is anything but. Throughout her life, Griffin has moved three times, to three different houses all in Lighthouse Point, and says her family plans on making it an even four this year.

It definitely takes a special type of person to balance this tidal wave of work in their life and still keep trudging on without a word.

This attitude that defines her is from her parents, Griffin says, whom she greatly looks up to.

Her father grew up with many hardships, but fought tooth and nail to make a better life for himself and his family, and eventually founded his own company dealing with the maintenance of yachts. Her mother fought just as hard, working various jobs in areas like mortgage and fashion before establishing her own company, Environmental Marine, that sells parts for the plumbing of ships.

Much like her parents, Griffin will not let anything stand in the way of her dream, whatever she decides that it may be.

Buchanan seeks head start on life

Jessica Buchanan, Managing Editor

By Julia Latchana, Asst. Color Page Editor

When most people think about they want to do for the rest of their life the decision is relatively hard to make. The majority of people don’t even have a plan for how they want the rest of their lives to go. Jessica Buchanan is one of the few who do.

“I want to start having kids at the age of 30,” Buchanan said. “Having a family before 32 is important to me.”

Born in Wayne, New Jersey, the junior’s family moved to South Florida when she was two years old. Her mother, according to Buchanan, is a little wound up, but drips of sarcasm, while her dad makes jokes and is hard working.

She has a sister who is six years older than she studying to be doctor. There is no competition between them. Buchanan looks to her sister and her parents as role model. Instead of following in her footsteps, Buchanan wants to become a computer engineer, a career that involves designing and developing computer systems and other technological devices.

“My sister is studying to be a doctor, a career that will take her at least eight years of medical school, before going into the field,” Buchanan said. “I don’t want to do that.”

Buchanan wants to be in her field of study before she has a family or get married. After seeing what job her sister wants, Buchanan decided to become a bio-engineer, but since recently taking AP Biology she has realised that Biology is not an easy subject and changed her career idea to computer engineering because coding is simple to her and she understands it.

Although she has the majority of her life planned ahead of her she is not good at time management, and often procrastinates. Buchanan participates in three clubs, has four APs, works at Kilwins, a candy shop, and is training to become chief editor of the Tornado Times.

Buchanan is striving to stay in charge of everything, especially her life and her future, so that she knows that everything will be done right.

Hood doesn’t hide from hard work

Charlotte Hood, Asst. Section Editor

By Alexandra Griffin, Editor-in-Chief

Junior Charlotte Hood is no stranger to hard work, juggling five AP classes and many extracurriculars.

Hood enjoys writing, drawing, reading, listening to music and playing piano and hopes to incorporate her creative personality into her work as an Assistant Section Editor on the Tornado Times staff.

“I like the writing aspect of (journalism), I like young kids getting out and getting their voices heard to practice for later on in life, I think it’s also good for students to see what’s going on in the school,” Hood said. “I know a lot of kids don’t read the newspaper, but for that one kid that does, they gain more knowledge and I thinks that’s important.”

To this day the accomplishment that Hood is most proud of is getting her poem “The Burden I Carry” published in a book called “Treasured”.

If Hood could change anything in the world, she would change “our giant orange Cheeto of a president” and people’s denial of the existence of global warming.

The person who has had the greatest influence on Hood is her mother. Hood says she comes from a legacy of hard work with both of her parents holding multiple jobs at times, and she thinks that spirit and drive has transferred to her.

Her pet peeves are the song “Happy” by Pharrell Williams and when people interrupt her.

Hood considers her biggest challenge to be building confidence when speaking in crowds. In order to help her combat that challenge, she joined Improv Club and has been participating in it for three years.

Senior Steinkamp prepares to explore the world

Madison Steinkamp, Asst. Section Editor

By Madison Steinkamp, Asst. Section Editor

Senior Madison Steinkamp is focused on making her dreams come true and branching out as she does so this year.

As a team member at Chick-fil-A, Steinkamp is working her way towards accomplishing all that she has dreamed of.

“I want to travel, I want to go everywhere I can and do everything I can. If that means working 25 or more hours a week, I will,” Steinkamp said.

Steinkamp’s plans for after high school are not finalized yet, but they do deviate from the normal post-high school plan. Rather than go to college the fall after graduation, she plans on taking at least a year off to explore the world.

“I don’t want to go from high school to college to work and never experience life,” Steinkamp said.

Besides working on her post-graduation plans this year, Steinkamp is also focusing on her school work. Steinkamp says her favorite class so far is anatomy, which is reigniting her love for the medical field.

“I used to always want to be a medical examiner, then I started drifting towards becoming a fire fighter, but after only being in two class periods, I am already back in love with becoming a medical examiner,” Steinkamp said.

Steinkamp says her strange love for working in a morgue comes from her father, who used to work with closely with accidents and body removal services in general.

Her father’s resilience after his own major car accident motivates Steinkamp to work hard and to chase her dreams.

“You never know when you end is coming, you just have to always be ready to die,” Steinkamp said.

Steinkamp’s quote to live by is “never change, only grow.”

This quote encourages Steinkamp to not question herself or her decisions.

She said, “I can’t look back and decide to change my life, but I can keep going and improve. There’s no rewind on life, you just have to keep moving and change your future.”

Steinkamp hopes her senior year will be the best one yet, and can’t wait to see what her future holds.

Rosser conquers life with big dreams

Sam Rosser, Sports Editor

By Jessica Buchanan, Managing Editor

As one of the newest members of Tornado Times Newspaper, senior Sam Rosser has taken on the duty of being Assistant Gray Page Editor and challenging classes such as AP English Literature and Composition, AP U.S. Government and Politics and Journalism to all to prepare himself for his biggest goal: to be the 52nd president of the United States.

Rosser has started to think about college options and aims to attend George Washington University in all 2018 and “successfully complete” either school’s law program.

Prior to his presidential campaign he hopes to gain experience by working on a congressional campaign. In fact, those he looks up to include prominent leaders that have held their own campaigns such as President Obama “because he is a good politician and stands for a lot of good things,” Rosser said. He also looks up to John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson because they were “swell” politicians.

He believes sleep is one of the key points to doing well in school and if he doesn’t get a lot of it, it will “hinder my performance in every other field without it,” said Rosser. This year, he hopes to improve his grades by “working my butt off if I want to go to a good law school,” Rosser said.

Rosser’s most “prominent” person in his life is his mother, Susan Rosser, as she owns multiple magazines such as Lighthouse Point!, Deerfield!, and Pompano!
“My appreciation for journalism has come from my mom and her love for journalism,” Rosser said.

Suarez gains something more than ice cream

Maria Suarez, Color Page Editor

By Emily Powell, Web and Business Editor

Treasurer of Quill and Scroll National Honors Society, member of many clubs, and crew leader at Coldstone Creamery; these are just a few of the many talents junior Maria Suarez holds.

Suarez was born in Florida but raised in Nicaragua starting at ten months old. She came back to Florida at age seven, and has been living in Pompano Beach for ten years. She has a job at Coldstone Creamery, where she plays the part of the manager alongside the actual manager, leading the crew throughout the work day.

Suarez is taking two AP classes along with her core classes and electives, newspaper being one of them. She has been a part of newspaper since freshman year.

“When I write, my emotions flow through,” Suarez said. Journalism has stuck with her since freshman year because although it was “just a class” for her in the beginning, her love for it has only grown stronger. “You can come in as a small thing, but what we produce is something great.”

Suarez recalled her writing experience in the fifth grade where she wrote a story about girls soccer and got it published, as well as the time where she was chosen to write a speech for the entire school and was so powerful that it made some people cry!

Suarez wants to be remembered by her classmates as “someone who didn’t let an opinion fly” and “someone who stands up for what they believe in,” as well as someone who was always helping people out.

“In your own style of writing, that’s how you get your voice,” Suarez says about being outspoken as one of her greatest attributes.

Brown vows to ‘stop being nice’

Jordan Brown, Asst. Section Editor

By Kristina Latchana, Web and Business Editor

When Jordan Brown leaves high school, she wants to be remembered as a nice person who was always willing to help others. In fact, the only people she has any difficulty with being nice to are those who lack manners, ignorant, or racist.

“I can’t stop being nice because that’s my personality,” Brown said.

Born in South Florida on July 31, 2001, the junior and her family moved from West Palm Beach to Pompano Beach about 10 years ago.

Nice would be the best word to describe her demeanor. Being nice and a good person is very important to her moral beliefs. She tries to help anyone and everyone she can, and she describes herself as a “people person.”

She has no issues striking up a random conversation with a stranger next to her and always listens to her friends’ problems when they need help. And while these may be some of her best qualities, her kindness has also shown to be her biggest challenge.

Often so many friends come to her that she becomes overloaded with their issues and others take advantage of her kindness. To meet this challenge, she’s learning when to say “no” and to involve herself less with others’ issues.

Jordan is also a hard worker and likes to challenge herself with the classes she takes, including AP English Language, AP Biology, Calculus, U.S. History Honors and Spanish 3. She also works for her school newspaper.

She also loves that the newspaper gives students a voice in their school, just like news outlets give people a voice in the world. Her favorite news sources are National Geographic, NYTimes and Entertainment Weekly.

In her spare time, Jordan likes to write and listen to music. She used to dance professionally but stopped during middle school to focus on her academics. Since coming to Pompano, she has joined Key Club, Quill and Scroll, and Improv.

Jordan is working on helping herself before helping others while remaining a great person.

From family road trips to aspiring travel journalist

Emily Powell, Web and Business Editor

By Maria Suarez, Color Page Editor

Having been born in Florida and traveling all around the U.S. has certainly inspired junior Emily Powell to pursue the career of becoming a travel journalist.

Powell was born in Florida but having been born in a vocational state hasn’t stopped her family from traveling to states like Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Alabama.

“I’ve traveled mostly in state. I kinda have this goal, I’m going to go to every state and then once I finish every state I’m gonna leave the country.”

A lot of Powell’s traveling has been done with family while roadtripping due to her father’s fear of airplanes but that hasn’t taken any joy out of traveling for Powell. In fact it’s all the traveling has only increased her aspirations of becoming a travel journalist when she’s older.

“I want to travel the world. I want to write about the place, visit the place,I want to experience it. There’s so much freedom. You get to experience new things and I like experiencing new things. And every time I go I always take pictures and stuff, cause I’m practicing for when I become a travel journalist.”

Traveling with family has really increased the bond between her and her family, “I’m really attached to family”, which can sometimes be a challenge for her when she has to go away. One of her greatest accomplishments was going to a stay away camp at FAU for cheerleading but she learned how to “leave my life behind for a little bit and go on and do something else.”

One of the biggest obstacle with becoming a travel journalist is Powell would have to travel away from her family, but once she had achieved her greatest accomplishment she had realized it may not be as difficult as she thought.

“I missed my family and stuff but we always called and that’s how I know whenever I’m in a different country I could always just call or facetime. And I would be back. I would just get my pictures, documentaries, and leave and experience of course.”

“it’s tough to leave your life behind, but once you get there it’s really worth it”.

If there’s anything to take away from Powell is “you can’t limit yourself to one place, when you have so many places to go to”.

Latchana latches on to a future

Julia Latchana, Asst. Color Page Editor

By Jessica Buchanan, Managing Editor

As one of the newest members of Tornado Times Newspaper, junior Julia Latchana has taken on the task of being Assistant Editor of the front, center and back pages as well as three challenging AP classes which she ultimately hopes will point her towards her dream job of being a forensic anthropologist.

Latchana has started writing about 20 novels each with about 4-5 chapters in them.

“As soon as I get a new idea, I start a new chapter,” Latchana said. Some of her books have involved magic and other supernatural phenomena.

Latchana and her older sister often get into “stupid arguments” over books and specific characters because they both have such a passion for novels.

Latchana has a love for books and writing, these being only two of the reasons she wants to be involved in producing the newspaper.

In Latchana’s household “school comes first” and homework must be completed even if time doesn’t allow it.

“My biggest challenge is homework because it takes so much time,” Latchana said.

Even though school is hard work, Latchana wants to continue her education and eventually become a forensic anthropologist, analyzing crime scenes using archaeology and anthropology.

Latchana said she likes “dead things and history” which combines the interests of the profession.

If Latchana was ever given the chance to interview Benjamin Franklin she would ask about all his “really fascinating ideas.”